Shubhankar likely to make cut, Lahiri may miss it

Woodland going great guns, Kisner hot on his heels

August 11, 2018 08:27 pm | Updated 08:27 pm IST - St Louis

Battling on: Shubhankar Sharma looked set to make his second straight cut in a Major when weather delay was called.

Battling on: Shubhankar Sharma looked set to make his second straight cut in a Major when weather delay was called.

Indian golfer Shubhankar Sharma was one-under through seven holes in the second round of the PGA Championships when play was stopped because of inclement weather.

Shubhankar, playing his fourth successive Major this year, was two-under for the tournament at that stage and looked set to make his second straight cut in a Major.

Earlier, the 22-year-old Indian had made the cut at the Open Championships last month.

Shubhankar’s senior colleague Anirban Lahiri had another miserable day on the greens as he missed a bunch of makeable putts and went through a horrible streak of four bogeys over five holes on the back nine to card three-over 73.

Put alongside his par 70 in the first round, his three-over 143 may not be enough to see him through to the final two rounds at the 100th PGA Championship at the Bellerive Country Club course.

Gary Woodland shot four-under 66 to get to 10-under, while in-form Kevin Kisner had a 64 to get to nine-under. Woodland hit nine of 14 fairways and, for the second straight day, 15 greens in regulation.

Tiger Woods birdied three of his first five holes and was at three-under through his first seven holes. Woods is now three-under.

Shubhankar missed three putts between 14-16 feet and one under seven feet, but got all pars while he birdied the seventh.

Lahiri missed no less than four putts inside 10 feet. Still he was one-under when he came off the 11th green. But from there he bogeyed four times between 12th and 16th and that’s where he lost the chance to stay on for the weekend.

Two-time US Open champion Brooks Koepka charged into contention with a seven-under 63 that tied the record for low round at the PGA. He had a chance to break the record but watched his 20-foot birdie putt slide by on his last hole, the par-4 ninth. He’s at eight-under, just two behind.

When the horn blew for a weather delay at 3:35 pm, Woods had hit his drive 321 yards into the primary rough on the par-5 eighth hole.

FedExCup No. 2 Justin Thomas, playing in the same group as Woods, was one-under for the round and two-under overall through seven. Rory McIlroy, the third member of the group, was even for the day and even for the tournament, just inside the projected cut line.

Charl Schwartzel, who also shot 63, and FedExCup and World No. 1 Dustin Johnson (66) were among four players at seven-under, three behind. The quartet included first-round leader Rickie Fowler, who was two-under for his first 10 holes when the horn blew for the delay.

The current projected cut line is even par. Those at one-over or worse, who could miss the cut, include Masters champion Patrick Reed (72, 71), Phil Mickelson (even through eight holes of the second round, three-over total) and Matt Kuchar (71, 70).

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